


in the dark I have no name

by smoakoverwatch



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Emiko Queen introspective, F/M, Found-family, Gen, felicity smoak will make you feel loved or die trying, if you strongly dislike rene...... maybe scroll on by, olicity from an outside pov, some of us (the author) are anti-robert and it shows, team arrow bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-02-06
Packaged: 2019-10-23 11:56:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17682983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smoakoverwatch/pseuds/smoakoverwatch
Summary: Emiko Queen learned early in life that family wasn’t for everyone.





	in the dark I have no name

**Author's Note:**

> Edit June 2019: Yeah... I was way off. Let's live in this little bubble where everyone got along and lived happily ever after, yeah?
> 
> I found the introduction of EQ & backstory relating to Robert heartbreaking, and I wanted to take a moment to write about it. I took some liberties with how famous the Queen family is in SC, because who even knows, you know?
> 
> d/t Lani for your birthday. Hope you like it bb.
> 
> p.s this is different from what I normally write about, but the standard ‘don’t like don’t read’ applies here thanks uwu~

Emiko Queen learned early in life that family wasn’t for everyone.

At least, it certainly wasn’t for her.

She learned early on that the version of a family she had was off. Wrong.

Normal families never had a father who came in and out of home as he pleased, with a guilty expression and an expensive toy in his grasp.

Normal fathers weren’t seen more on TV than in real life.

Normal fathers didn’t tuck you away in the corner of the Glades, hoping no one else would ever find you while he lived with his other family—his real family.

Normal kids didn’t feel a burning shame when others asked what their mom and dad were like on the playground.

So Emiko adjusted for her not-normal normal.

Growing up in Starling City meant that everyone was aware of the Queen family at all times.

She could see in the way people would read her name, their eyebrows furrowing briefly, as it to think to themselves, “I don’t know _that_ Queen”, before looking up at her and immediately sighing. Of course _she_ wasn’t a Queen.

Except she was.

The minute she realized the truth about her strange family life, she resented her last name. Robert Queen couldn’t give her a true family, he couldn’t give her mother a better house to live in, couldn’t give Emiko the decency of being her parent in public, but he burdened her with the Queen name.

She hated him for it.

But it was complicated to hate her father.

As much as she wanted to hate him, for coming and going, for making her mother cry every time he walked out the door, the smallest part of her craved his company. She watched the door carefully every Tuesday evening, when he would usually visit. Every present she wanted to bury in the trash sat cherished on her tiny shelf.

It was an exhausting way to grow up.

The first time she was aware that her father was not just her father—that he had a life outside the time spent under the quilt fort with her—Emiko would have been about seven or eight years old.

As in Starling City tradition, the annual Queen family Christmas photo was printed in the society pages of the newspaper. Emiko was surprised to see the man she called ‘dad’ with an unfamiliar woman, a young boy and a toddler in the crook of his arm.

It was the first time she saw all the names. _Robert Queen (left), Moira Queen (right) with their children Oliver and Thea._

Her mother saw the photo and ripped it from her hands. She crumpled it into a ball and tossed it in the trash.

“Forget about that,” she instructed Emiko. There was the same pain in her eyes that appeared every time dad left.

But Emiko couldn’t forget.

After that it was impossible to ignore the Queen family’s presence in Starling City.

Charity events and televised politician’s speeches were hosted in the mansion that resided just outside of town. Everyone knew about the Queen mansion. It was something tourists drove by, even if they couldn’t see anything past the tall gates. It was the place teenagers wanted to try and trespass, like a challenge.

To Emiko, it was a castle. Grand, mesmerizing, but ultimately outside of her destiny. Her name was on the plaque, but there was no place at the table for her.

Sill, it was hard not to get lost in the fantasies. That one day, dad would come home with a smile on his face and people to pack up the apartment (the Queens had people for everything, Emiko and her mother wouldn’t have to lift a finger). He’d say that there was no way they could keep living in the Glades, in an apartment that should have been condemned ages ago.

Emiko would have siblings. She always wanted siblings. Being alone sucked. But Oliver as a big brother and Thea as a little sister? That sounded perfect.

A perfect life: that’s what the Queens had. All Emiko wanted was a taste of it.

* * *

People started to catch on to Emiko’s strange life when she reached middle school.

Robert Queen’s wandering eyes were the worst kept secret of Starling City. But no one suspected he would ever step foot in the Glades. His mistress had to be another WASP, a high society woman, someone who could hold a candle to Moira Queen.

For her thirteenth birthday, Emiko waited by the door with the cake she baked with her mom. The chocolate frosting was messy and melted, but it felt good to make it. Her mother urged her to cut into it the later the night went on, but Emiko wanted to wait. It was Tuesday. Dad had to come if it was Tuesday _and_ her birthday.

He came close to midnight. The cake was eaten—mom won, Emiko was hungry after all—and Emiko was half asleep on the couch.

He wore a tired, guilty expression and held out a jewelry box for her. A silver necklace with a heart pendant sitting on the middle.

She wanted to throw it back in his face.

She let him clasp it around her neck.

But kids from the Glades weren’t supposed to have flashy jewelry.

Emiko made the mistake of wearing it to school—she thought naively keeping it on would make her feel closer to her dad. For a week it stayed tucked under her clothes, until one day it had slipped out during P.E.

“What is _that_?” George Wallace—pesky little thing, the clichéd bully type who compensated for his lack of growth spurt with being a menace—asked, his finger pointed out to her neck, the disgust in his voice evident.

“It was a birthday present,” Emiko said, holding the pendant in her chest as though shielding it from their view would help, “From my parents.”

“Your _mom_ got you that?” he sneered, “She works out in the Merlyn Global factory. How could she get that?”

Emiko didn’t say anything. The more George’s voice rose, the bigger the crowd around them got.

“Come on, what does your mom really do?” he asked. The implication in his voice was clear. As other kids around them started to laugh, and whisper, and look at her with that same look—contempt, judgement, pity.

Emiko had enough. She ran out of the gym and into the change room, locking herself in one of the stalls until the tears dried up.

The teachers at this school hardly cared. Emiko grabbed her backpack, where she had shoved her necklace into, and walked out of school.

She wandered around the Glades until the sun went down. Against what every parent in Starling City advised their kids, Emiko knew it wasn’t entirely unsafe to walk in the Glades, if you knew where you were going. She knew she was safe under the sun, but when it got dark, she turned around and went home. If she got home too late her mother would worry, and it was the last thing she needed on her plate these days.

She got home to find all the lights off, though her mother’s purse sitting by the door indicated she was home. The TV was on—the faint sound of the news anchor speaking and the blue light coming from the darkened living room told her that.

A horrible sobbing sound had Emiko kicking her shoes off, with enough force that they hit the wall with a faint _thud,_ and running into the room.

She wasn’t expecting to find her mother, frozen in front of the television, her cheeks wet with tears.

“Mom, what—”

Emiko looked at the TV.

_Billionaire CEO Robert Queen lost at sea._

The image of her father, smiling, looked down at Emiko.

She joined her mother on the floor. Her arms wrapped around her mother’s shoulders, trying to bring her comfort even though she felt nothing and everything in that moment.

The story played on the news all night. Every time someone used the words  _Robert Queen_ and  _missing_ in the same sentence, Emiko flinched.

The search would go on, scouring the waters for Robert, his son Oliver and the crew. Eventually, it would slow down before stopping altogether.

Moira Queen would host a memorial service for two empty graves. All of Starling City would pay their respects on the Queen’s grounds.

But Kazumi Adachi and Emiko Queen grieved in private.

* * *

As the saying goes, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

Emiko never realized the extent to which Robert did help her mother out until he couldn’t. Her mother picked up more shifts at work, took on a second job when Emiko started high school. She was growing more tired by the day, but stubbornly refused to accept Emiko’s help.

When Emiko started her junior year, she took a job waiting tables in a small diner in the Glades, against her mother’s wishes that she focused on her studies.

Her dreams of student life at SCU were short-lived when she knew how much the costs would be. She arranged for online and night courses to continue working and helping her mom keep the roof over their heads, no matter how much her mother disapproved.

In the public eye, Moira Queen rose to the helm of Queen Consolidated. Young Thea Queen was just starting high school, and already the face of flashy teen magazines. The media speculated endlessly what would become of the Queen family in the two, three years after they lost half their members.

Emiko resigned herself to the reality that the truth of her heritage died on that boat with Robert.

* * *

Emiko was nineteen when the news hit.

Between waiting tables, working at a shoe store, and online classes, her days were busy. She had a rare evening off, one she planned on spending with her mom, takeout, and crashing on the couch.

But when she was about to leave work that day, the TV that played in the break room caught her attention.

_Oliver Queen is alive._

She froze. If he was—could it be—?

The anchor was quick to report that he was the lone survivor from the Queen’s Gambit. Meaning that a few crew members, Sara Lance, and of course Robert Queen were all dead.

Ultimately, it meant nothing to Emiko. Robert didn’t survive. Her newly resurrected half-brother likely had no idea she existed. Life would go on as normal. The only difference is that she would be forced to see more of the Queens on the news lately.

But that wasn’t the only difference in the news.

 _The Hood_ was the talk of the town—the poor in the Glades felt like they had hope again. The rich were nervous. The cops hated him.

Emiko was enthralled.

There was something that always caught her attention—every new story and every piece of grainy cell phone footage made her stop in her tracks, squinting as though she could see through the shadow of the green hood.

It was like, after years of enduring every injustice brought on by life in the Glades, someone finally _cared._ The cops only cared when there was a chance to arrest some kid who needed help, not the inside of a jail cell. The politicians only cared when it came to election season.

But the Hood was finally getting to the root of the problem: The wealthy who took advantage of the poor, who exploited the desperate, and who evaded the law.

It was everything, to Emiko. So much that when Oliver Queen was arrested on suspicions of being the Hood, she was willing to look the other way because she believed in his message.

But the months wore on. Oliver Queen wasn’t the Hood, after all. And the Glades weren’t getting better.

Then there was the newscast that changed everything.

Emiko was exhausted. She had been up all night finishing a final assignment for one of her business classes and came straight to work, where it was especially busy.

A change in the normal hum of background noise caught everyone’s attention.

Every eye in the diner, almost on instinct, turned to the small TV mounted on the wall. Moira Queen, who was always so poised and put together, looked down on the patrons, scared.

_“God forgive me, I have failed this city. For the past five years, under the threat for my life and the lives of my family, I have been complicit in an undertaking with one horrible purpose: To destroy the Glades and everyone in it.”_

People covered their mouths in shock. Mothers held their children closer. Everyone was frozen in horror until Moira dropped the final bomb—

“ _If you reside in the Glades, you need to get out_ now _. Your lives and the lives of your children depend on it_.”

No one stopped to consider what her words meant, but it was clear that something dangerous was coming.

The restaurant patrons rose from their seats, meals forgotten, and scrambled to the door. Emiko’s manager hurried to the backroom, and she knew he wouldn’t be returning.

She remembered her mother was at home tonight, not working a shift at her newest job in the city.

Pushing people out of the way, Emiko ran for the exit. The streets were already chaos. People were driving recklessly, to get out of the city and from whatever was going to destroy the Glades.

Emiko ran down the sidewalks towards her home. Everything else went away—the scrambling people around her, pushing and shoving, the noise dulled into the background. All she knew was that she had to get home.

The ground started to shake.

People were screaming around her—buildings were collapsing. The crowd in front of Emiko seemed like it was too much. She would never forget the feeling, it would haunt her for months. One moment she was standing, a block away from her apartment, the next she was knocked off her feet.

She didn’t know how long it took her until she finally reached the apartment. Too long. The ground stopped shaking, but Emiko still felt tremors in her legs.

She could have cried in relief when she finally got to her street and saw the crowd outside. Everyone had evacuated, and the damage to the building wasn’t the worst she had seen coming over.

Her neighbor saw her and grabbed her arm.

“Your mother,” she said, “She was helping everyone evacuate. She hurt her leg.”

Emiko scrambled through the crowd, where her mother was holding a few children back as they called for their parents. She could tell from the way she leaned to the side that she was hurt.

“Mom,” she called out, her voice drowned in the noise.

It took some convincing to pull her mother away. The hospital was almost overflowing with people, so much that her mother wanted to turn around and go home, but Emiko was adamant.

They would eventually find out that her mother fractured her ankle. It was bad enough that she missed a few weeks of work. The grocery store in Starling City was less sympathetic to the problems of the Glades’ earthquake victims, and she eventually lost her job.

Months passed. Emiko insisted her mother stayed home and rest, and promised that she would be able to handle working on her own.

The Glades had to put itself back together again. Emiko picked up more shifts where she could. The upcoming trial of Moira Queen dominated the news.

Emiko wondered why it was always the Queen family causing problems for her own.

* * *

The day Emiko found her mother’s body, five years later, was the day her life ended. Everything tunneled to that moment—every act of injustice life had thrown at them, Robert, the Undertaking, lost jobs and pinched wages to pay for life—all she knew was that she had to make it right.

Starting with the man that killed her mother. He would be the first to pay.

It was as though a switch had flipped in her mind—nothing else mattered anymore, no rational thought had any room. Emiko saw red. She didn’t know where to start, just that something needed to be done. She needed to find justice.

After the burial, Emiko walked around the city for hours. It was late fall, there was a chill in the air. She passed by a newspaper stand and immediately picked up a copy, sifting through it for any mention of the fire, or any of the dead from that day.

Nothing. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, no one gave a damn about poor people in the Glades dying.

She threw it to the ground—the cover story had a photo of Mayor Oliver Queen at a Thanksgiving event, being arrested by the FBI on suspicions of being the Green Arrow.

She wanted to sigh. Of course, it was a Queen overshadowing the news cycle, pulling away from her mother once more.

Then she started reading the story.

Oliver Queen as the Green Arrow certainly made sense. There was so much about him, from those five years away, that hardly added up. It seemed every few years he was facing these accusations, perhaps he was just really slippery when it came to the law.

She considered the year he first returned from his island—when the Hood was going around town, exacting his revenge on the wealthy who preyed on the poor and vulnerable.

Emiko knew what she had to do.

* * *

Emiko planned to do this alone.

She did not plan for Rene Ramirez.

But Rene wiggled his way into the smallest opening in her life and made his place there. She suspected he had a lot of practice in this area.

They built an easy rapport.

After he found out the truth about her mother, and her mission, he went out with her on the field. Things got better when she finally came clean about her relation to Oliver. She was worried about telling him, she didn’t know how he would react. Luckily, he was quick to assure her that nothing about their dynamic would have to change.

And so, the mission continued. They chased down any lead they could in search of the truth.

Some nights it was so easy. They were so in sync they barely needed to communicate. They ran side by side into the darkness. Emiko wouldn’t be able to remember a time where she wanted to do this alone.

Some nights were not so easy.

This was one of those nights.

They returned to their base silently. Rene was limping, he got the wrong end of a crowbar. Emiko had a cut down the side of her cheek that was a harsh, angry red and wouldn’t stop stinging. She didn’t mind the pain, or the idea of having a scar under her eye, but she was furious that someone was able to get that close.

She slammed her bow onto the table and quickly discarded the leather jacket. The black tank top she wore under was stuck to her skin from perspiration.

“Okay,” Rene said, setting his mask next to hers, “That didn’t go so well.”

“It didn’t go anywhere,” she bit out.

“I know,” he said, “I was trying to be positive.”

“There’s nothing to be positive about,” she retorted. Her head felt tight. She reached up to begin undoing her braids. “It’s been months and I’m nowhere closer to finding out why my mother died.”

“I know,” Rene said patiently, “We can always—”

“Just go home, Rene,” Emiko said, “It’s late.”

“Em—”

“Go home,” she repeated firmly. She busied herself with cleaning the weapons to avoid looking at his eyes. “Just go back to your daughter.”

“No.”

Her fingers flexed in irritation. He was _so_ stubborn.

“You’re upset.”

And he loved to point out the obvious.

“We can try again another night,” she amended, keeping her voice in check, “For now, I just need to cool down.”

“You want to talk about it?”

Emiko shook her head. Her hair fell loose around her shoulders.

“I told you,” she said, sitting down, “I’m not getting answers. If I can’t—if I can’t find out the truth, then she’ll have died for nothing.”

Her voice caught at the end, the emotions getting the best of her. She hung her head low when her eyes started to burn. She wasn’t ashamed of crying, but it wouldn’t do her any favours in getting Rene to leave her alone.

She felt him sit down next to her. Their shoulders brushed together.

“I know it’s frustrating,” he said, “I know I’m probably no help—I’m told I can be a bit of a pest.”

Emiko rolled her wet eyes.

“If there’s something I learned on Oliver’s team, it’s how to take losses in stride,” he continued, “To regroup, to find another way. He always found another way.”

His voice faded towards the end, in the way it always did when Rene spoke of his old team. Emiko knew there was a lot there he didn’t give away—regrets he didn’t want to talk about.

She finally found the courage to raise her head.

One common misconception that Star City folk had about people in the Glades was that everyone was unkind. That they were thugs, mugging and stealing to pay for what they couldn’t afford.

Emiko knew that was far from the truth. There was kindness everywhere she looked. Her neighbor growing up, who watched Emiko on the nights her mother had to work late. The bakery down the street, where the manager always slipped Emiko an extra bun after her mother’s accident in the Glades.

Sure, some people were desperate, and their desperation made them do bad things. But Emiko would maintain that, ultimately, the people of the Glades were kind.

Looking at Rene, she saw that same kindness. From someone who saw struggle, who saw all the horrible things life could throw at people in the Glades, and still had it in him to help.

“You’re right,” she admitted quietly, “It’s just hard to remember some days.”

“That’s why I’m here,” he said with a soft smile, “A personal thorn in your side.”

Emiko smiled. There he went again with the self-deprecating comments.

“I’m really glad I met you,” she took the chance to say, “I know you’ve had to make your own tough choices. Maybe some mistakes. But—I’m just glad you’re here—I mean—”

She faltered. She was never good at expressing herself like this.

“I know,” Rene said.

There was no need to say anything after that.

Their shoulders bumped together. Emiko felt the adrenaline from the night out finally being to wear off as she relaxed her tense posture. She looked back to Rene and noticed how close they were sitting, close enough to—

“Tomorrow is Saturday,” Rene said abruptly.

Emiko blinked.

“Okay?”

“It’s just… Saturday is pancake day in my house. I make the bananas and the syrup smile. Zoe says she’s getting too old for that, but I know she loves it,” Rene shook his head, the tips of his ears looking more pink than usual, “Anyway. Do you want to join us?”

Emiko contemplated it. Before this, their interactions were mostly at night, running missions or training. This was… different. A step forward.

She nodded.

“I’d love to.”

If either of them noticed they left their base hand in hand, they didn’t comment on it.

* * *

Emiko was sweating through her blouse.

Yeah. She was wearing a blouse. It was her standard job-interview outfit, probably one of the best things she owned.

But Oliver invited her over, and he made dinner sound like an… occasion. Which, growing up in the Queen mansion with servers and chefs, it probably was. Even if they lived in an apartment now, Emiko had seen how his wife, Felicity, looked. She was probably going to be dressed to the nines.

Emiko clutched the bottle of wine tighter in her hand and took a deep breath. She interrogated a man with an arrow to his chest just yesterday. This should have been nothing.

But it was everything.

There was a lot riding on this dinner—the dinner she once imagined as a kid, being able to bond with her big brother. It was different now. He was miles different from what she imagined. And there was Felicity. An unknown.

The door swung open, revealing a blonde woman with a bright smile.

“Emiko!” she exclaimed, “Come in.”

Emiko took a step inside, where the scent of fresh food was wafting through the apartment.

“I brought… Wine,” Emiko held it out, eyes downcast. It felt like such a stupid idea at first, but now she realized that the bottle she quickly picked up from the convenience store wouldn’t match the Queen’s standards—were they even wine people?

Felicity’s eyes widened.

“You just became my favourite Queen,” she said, her voice so full of awe that Emiko was half sure she was serious, “Can I get your coat?”

Emiko reached for the zip of her jacket, until she really looked at Felicity.

A black v-neck shirt. Dark wash jeans.

Emiko flushed. She felt so stupid.

“Uh, here,” she mumbled, resisting the urge to fiddle with the collar of her blouse. She felt Felicity’s eyes go over her appearance.

“Oh, I love that top,” she said, “I have something like it, but in red instead of navy.”

“Thanks,” Emiko said. She didn’t think Felicity was one to sift through the clearance rack like she had. Still feeling ridiculous, she quickly added, “I might have overdressed, I—Oliver said—”

“He said _we sit for dinner at 7,_ right?” Felicity finished with a knowing smile.

“Yeah,” Emiko’s shoulders deflated.

Felicity laughed.

“I think it’s one of those old habits die hard things… Like, it’s just the way he’s always talking about things like this. One time we were having our friend John Diggle over and Oliver said, ‘we’ll have the first course at 6’. William came to my room after and asked if he needed a tie.”

Emiko blinked. Felicity Smoak talked fast. But it wasn’t difficult to keep up with her. Every word made Emiko feel a little more at ease.

“William and I are always reminding him that we didn’t grow up with the one percent,” Felicity finished with a roll of the eyes.

That made Emiko pause.

“You didn’t—I mean—”

She wracked her brain. She remembered Oliver’s trial last year, Felicity Smoak’s elite education and impeccable appearance. She always seemed like she fit right into the Queens.

Felicity gave her another knowing smile.

“I grew up in Vegas, and the not fun part of Vegas: less kitschy lights and more grime. Just me and my mom.”

Emiko felt like she understood Felicity a lot better now—she talked a lot, but she was selective with her own life. What she did reveal was done purposefully.

She was another only-child raised by a single mom. Far from Oliver’s childhood, but closer to Emiko’s.

“Have a seat,” Felicity gestured to the couches, “I’ll grab some glasses for the wine while our chef finishes up on dinner.”

She blinked.

“The chef is just Oliver,” she clarified quickly.

It made Emiko smile.

And her nerves were as good as gone after that.

Stories flowed freely, though Felicity was leading the charge. Emiko took the time to really observe her brother and his wife.

Admittedly, a lot about them didn’t make sense to her. Oliver didn’t seem like the kind of person who would ever make personal connections and settle down—not with all his work as the vigilante. But watching him interact with Felicity made everything so clear.

Even if he swore himself to the life of that green hood—he never really stood a chance in the matter. Not with Felicity by his side.

He looked at her like every heavy thing in the world melted away. He hung onto every word of her stories—even the ones that involved him—and grinned like it was the first time he heard the punchline.

There was an easy intimacy between them. They weren’t overly affectionate, but just enough that any stranger could tell that there was years of trust and love behind them. Casual fingers twining during dinner, his hand brushing against her back as she cleared the table.

It was nice to see.

But, strangely, made Emiko feel more lonely.

As the night wore on, she found feet dragging, knowing that she couldn’t stay any longer but not wanting to go back to her own empty condo.

“William went over to a friend’s house tonight, but next time you really need to meet him,” Felicity declared as she packed leftovers for Emiko to take home.

Right. William. Her _nephew._

It was so strange, growing up with no family and having a brother, sister-in-law and nephew in one go.

“I’d really like that,” she answered with a smile.

She took the leftovers when Felicity handed them over.

“I’ll get these back to you as soon as I can,” Emiko gestured to the Tupperware. She could hear her mother’s voice in her head, reminding her to cook something because you should never return dishes empty.

Felicity waved.

“Don’t worry too much,” she said, “You’re family.”

The words made Emiko freeze. Her throat tightened, and she battled to keep her emotions in check.

If her reaction was visible, Felicity gave no hints that she noticed.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for coffee?” she asked again with a frown, handing Emiko her jacket.

“I’d love to,” Emiko said honestly, “But I need to be up early tomorrow—Rene wanted me to stop by his morning class at the Glades.”

Felicity’s eyes lit up.

“That’s right—I meant to ask how you and Rene know each other.”

Emiko rolled her eyes—an automatic reaction at this point when it came to Rene Ramirez.

“Oh, when I was out in the hood one night, I got shot, and I had seen Rene a few times while I was out there, I did my homework on him and I thought I could trust him. He patched me up.”

She tapped her shoulder absently, the spot where the wound had scarred over.

Felicity sputtered.

“You were shot in the shoulder and went to him for help?” she asked, her voice an octave higher than usual.

“Yeah,” Emiko said. She wondered if that was breaking some kind of vigilante rule that Oliver established, but, whatever, it was an emergency.

“Does Oliver know this?”

“No…” Emiko crossed her arms. So, it was definitely some rule breaking thing. She didn’t care. She wasn’t signing on to be a sidekick, she had her own rules.

Felicity grabbed Emiko’s hand with a jolt.

“Please,” she said lowly, her face lighting up, “Please let me be there when you tell him this story.”

Okay. She was missing something there.

“Will do,” Emiko said absently, pulling her jacket over her shoulders.

Like good hosts, Oliver and Felicity walked her to the door.

Just as Emiko stepped out under the door frame, Felicity hesitated.

“Can I…” she bit her lip, “Would it be okay if I hugged you? Or is that too weird?”

Emiko froze. She wondered when the last time that ever even happened was.

She managed a half nod before Felicity threw her arms around her neck and pulled her into a tight embrace.

The gesture brought hot tears to Emiko’s eyes, and she blinked quickly. Her arms raised on their own accord to return the hug and she revelled in the feeling.

The last person to ever hug her like this was possibly her mother—and god, Emiko missed so much about her, she missed her every day, but she missed someone holding her like this and making her feel like she was home, and that every problem was far, far away.

When Felicity pulled back, her cheeks were flushed.

“I’m really glad we got to do this,” she said quickly, “Maybe… The two of us could meet for coffee one of these days?”

Emiko cleared her throat against the sudden bout of emotions that built up there.

“I’d like that,” she said, her voice huskier than normal.

Felicity gave another dazzling smile, like Emiko’s approval meant the world to her. She stepped back and settled into the space under Oliver’s shoulder.

“Don’t forget we have training tomorrow evening,” Oliver instructed firmly.

“You got it boss,” Emiko said with a mock-salute.

As she walked towards the elevator, Emiko realized that the dinner wasn’t a bad idea.

* * *

Every childhood dream of having Oliver as an older brother could not possibly hold a candle to the real thing.

For one, the Oliver of back then probably wouldn’t have been good company.  

For another, she definitely felt that they were on the same page now, as adults who had been through their own versions of hell.

She had been hesitant to open up with him, against his own wishes. He made it clear next to their father’s grave that night that he intended to be a part of her life.

They found common ground in the mission. Whereas Oliver was an employee of the SCPD now, Emiko was operating outside the law. But that didn’t stop him from helping her in any way he could.

They had standing appointments to train every week. Just the two of them. At first, it was tense. They only spoke to exchange techniques or improve form. But slowly, he began to tell her about his seven years as the Green Arrow.

“I thought I would do all of it alone,” he admitted, “I never wanted a team. I let Diggle and Felicity in by choice, but I was always scared of something happening to them because of me. Roy Harper, Thea, the others… They _definitely_ weren’t part of the plan. But I know I’m still alive because of my team.”

Emiko nodded.

“I know what you mean,” she said, “I didn’t  _want_ to let anyone in. But, with Rene, it all just kind of happened.”

Oliver gave her a knowing look.

“When I first met Felicity, the best thing for me was feeling like I had a partner in this mission,” he said.

Emiko rolled her eyes. Oliver rarely gave away a lot of his feelings through his expression, but she could tell through the barely-there smile what he was implying.

“It’s not like that,” she clarified.

“Right,” Oliver said. She couldn’t tell if he believed her. “I’m just saying, it’s not the worst thing in the world to have a companion in all of this.”

He ran a hand through his hair, which was damp with sweat from their training.

“Even if that person is Rene,” he admitted with a grumble.

That was the last training they had, until after their dinner with Felicity, when he asked her to meet at a different location.

The building was empty. A few old posters were littered across the floor, from Oliver’s days as a mayoral candidate.

Oliver was waiting for her with his hands behind his back.

“Thanks for meeting me here,” he said once she entered a smaller room towards the back of the building.

“What is this place?”

“It used to be my old campaign office,” he explained, “But it’s so much more than that.”

He led her to an elevator to the side, punching a code through the door.

The elevator shaft lurched as it pulled them down. Oliver was looking straight ahead, the tiniest smile playing on his face. It made Emiko suspicious.

When the doors opened, Emiko was surprised to see a room full of people and a trashed basement.

Oliver held his hand out, gesturing for her to step off first.

Felicity was leading the group, a bright smile on her face.

“What’s going on?” Emiko asked.

Felicity looked to her husband.

“He didn’t—you didn’t tell her?” she asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

A tall man in glasses—Curtis, Emiko remembered vaguely—spoke up from the back of the crowd.

 “To be fair, I don’t know what I’m doing here, either,” he said.

Felicity tilted her head at Oliver disapprovingly.

“I thought it would be better if I told everyone together,” he said, crossing his arms defensively.

Felicity sighed.

“This is where we used to do all of our Team Arrow work,” she explained to Emiko, “Until it was destroyed last year.”

“We’re going to rebuild it today,” Oliver said, “All of us.”

Rene groaned. Emiko didn’t even realize he was there.

“It’s going to take forever,” he complained.

“Think of it as a team building exercise, Rene,” Oliver said with a smile. Emiko wondered how much enjoyment he was getting out of this.

It took them all day. Emiko had guessed it would be weeks of work, but with all of them time went by faster.

She got to meet the other members of the team at last, and was surprised at how easy it was to make conversation with these strangers.

Felicity worked in the centre, setting up a careful arrangement of monitors. Diggle and Oliver handled a lot of the heavy lifting and Dinah cleared the debris. Curtis struggled with a shipment of office chairs that needed to be assembled around the conference table.

The last piece to go up was a set of glass cases along the far wall of the bunker. Oliver handled most of that himself, with a little direction from Felicity. When he was finished, he called everyone over.

In the cases were six empty chrome mannequins. There were names neatly printed on plaques at the bottom of each case.

_Green Arrow, Spartan, Wild Dog, Black Canary, Mr. Terrific._

“We’re going to do this like before. We won’t make the same mistakes, but I think it’s about time we put all of our equipment back to their rightful places.”

Rene nodded approvingly.

“Nice.”

Oliver walked over to the last case, the only one without a name at the bottom. He turned to Emiko.

“This one’s yours, if you want it,” he said quietly, “I know you have your own mission, and you’re happy to do things the way you have been. But we can help you. This door’s open for you, and so is the team.”

Emiko looked around. Felicity was smiling with wet eyes, like she knew this moment was coming. Rene looked at her and winked. The others, who she barely knew, were already happy to let her in.

There was no need to think about it.

“I’m in,” she said simply.

Emiko Queen learned early in life that family wasn’t for everyone.

But maybe, the world decided it was for her after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.


End file.
